Scoop ... Wincup to HP - JM Burkman hires new lobbyist, picks up 12 clients - Was paying off Clinton's debt legal? - Kerry staffers now have ally in the State Department - Nelson out at Visa

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PI SCOOP … WINCUP TO HP: Bret Wincup, director of government relations at the Information Technology Industry Council, is joining tech company Hewlett Packard, PI has learned. The former aide to then-Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Democratic Cloakroom aide worked at the TechNet before joining ITI. It’s a big hit to ITI. The trade group also recently faced the high-profile failure of a proposed TechNet-ITI merger and the departure of Cisco as a member of ITI. Wincup and ITI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

JM BURKMAN HIRES NEW LOBBYIST, PICKS UP 12 CLIENTS:Crowell & Moring’s Mark Busching has moved to JM Burkman and Associates, which registered to lobby for 12 energy and water companies this month. Jack Burkman told PI that Busching, who previously worked for former Rep. Rick Lazio (R-N.Y.), Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) and the Department of Transportation, has a “large expertise on energy issues.” Some of the firm’s new energy clients include: Apache Oil Company, Circular Energy, Clean Green Conversions, Consolidated Distributors Inc., Cutting Edge Formulations, KLD Energy Technologies, Limited Energy Storage Resources and Luna Road. “We’re heading into what looks to be a good growth spurt where we may pick up a couple of others as well,” Burkman told PI.

GOOD WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, where it’s been 166 years since the Mexican city Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco by the Americans who claimed it during the Mexican-American War. Send your K Street and campaign finance news, gossip, tips and thoughts on whether you agree with Byron that “Abbey Road” is the worst Beatles album to btau@politico.com orapalmer@politico.com. And follow us on Twitter at @ByronTau and @apalmerdc. Tarini is at tparti@politico.com or on Twitter at @tparti.

WAS PAYING OFF CLINTON’S DEBT LEGAL? Did the Obama campaign run afoul of Federal Election Commission rules when trying to get some of their top donors to pay off Hillary Clinton’s campaign debt from 2008? Bloomberg reports [http://buswk.co/XK30vo] that the campaign’s finance brass had an intern comb through OpenSecrets.org to find donors who had not maxed out to Clinton in 2008. The FEC puts strict conditions on the use of its data, banning campaigns from using it to solicit contributions. “Candidly, it's really not that uncommon,” said attorney Joseph Birkenstock, an election law specialist with Caplin & Drysdale. Birkenstock said it’s a gray area — was the campaign using the database to find new donors for Clinton or just ensuring that existing Obama donors did not accidentally donate above the legal limits? That’s a big difference, legally speaking. “That's frankly the reason the data exists — it's to keep track of who has given and how much,” said Birkenstock.

What about the fact that the Obama campaign used OpenSecrets instead of the FEC website to access the restricted data? "If it'd be unlawful to do so with the FEC data, it'd be no less unlawful to use the OpenSecrets data as it's really just the FEC API,” said Dan Backer, principal attorney at DB Capitol Strategies. "The whole thing seems oddly organized as it could have been done in a much easier, more apparently compliant manner." An Obama campaign official declined to comment on whether it sought legal counsel on the fundraising plan, saying only that the campaign did not use FEC website.

KERRY STAFFERS NOW HAVE ALLY IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT: Former staffers of Sen. John Kerry, who was just confirmed as secretary of State, now have a potential ally in the State Department. Kerry aides who moved to K Street over the years include: April Boyd, senior director of federal government affairs at Yahoo! Inc.; Amy Dacey, executive director at EMILY’s List; Suzy Glucksman, senior adviser for Oxfam America; Barry LaSala, lobbyist for Elmendorf Ryan; Frank Lowenstein, lobbyist for Podesta Group; Brian Rice, director of federal regulatory affairs for Verizon Communications; and Gregg Rothschild, managing director government relations for Glover Park Group, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

NELSON OUT AT VISA: Lisa Nelson, head of global government relations for Visa, is exiting the credit card company. “I have decided that it is the right time to make a change,” Nelson wrote Tuesday evening in an email obtained by PI. “It has been a truly rewarding experience to have been able to develop and build the terrific team we have at Visa.” Nelson’s departure comes after Visa lost two major battles on interchange and just months after Alison Kutler joined from Rio Tinto. Stay tuned on Nelson’s next act.

THOMPSON MOVES TO DLA PIPER:Bruce Thompson has joined DLA Piper as a senior policy adviser in the government affairs practice. Before joining the firm, Thompson was vice president at Van Scoyoc Associates.

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FORMER SENECA NATION PRESIDENT JOINS SNR DENTON:Robert Odawi Porter has joined SNR Denton as a senior counsel in the Native American Law and Policy practice and the Public Policy and Regulation practice. Porter recently finished his term as the 67th president of the Seneca Nation of Indians.

McCASKILL’S SPRING RETREAT FUNDRAISER: Just months after winning reelection, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is back to fundraising again with a spring weekend retreat fundraiser at The Ritz Carlton in Naples, Fla., from March 15-17. The suggested contribution for a political action committee is $5,000 and for an individual is $2,500.

CONSERVATIVE GROUPS BACK IMMIGRATION PLAN: A letter circulated by Americans for Tax Reform and signed by the Chamber of Commerce, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the American Conservative Union and others encourages the Senate to pass a comprehensive immigration reform package that includes more high-skill visas. “America's immigration system is in need of reform, especially with respect to highly-skilled foreign workers,” the letter argues. See the letter here: http://bit.ly/WfoDYS

PORTER JOINS NICKLES GROUP: Emily Porter, assistant to Speaker John Boehner for policy, is joining the Nickles Group as a vice president. Porter comes on board with a specialty in health policy and legislative strategy. Before joining Boehner’s team in 2004, she worked for Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) and former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.).

2013-14 CONTRIBUTION LIMITS RELEASED: The Federal Election Commission has released their revised donation limits for the 2013-14 cycle. Individuals can now donate a maximum of $2,600 to a campaign per election and $32,400 to a national political party. The maximum individual donation to a PAC is $5,000. The donation limits are indexed to inflation and change from cycle-to-cycle. See the new FEC limits here: http://1.usa.gov/14rOTRH

LEVINSON GETS NEW DIGS: Levinson & Associates and the Alliance for Global Food Security are moving to a new office at 418 4th Street, NE.

ELSEWHERE IN THE INFLUENCE WORLD:

Several individuals secured domain names for a new Obama-affiliated nonprofit, Organizing for Action, which failed to register the sites before launching, reports Matea Gold of The Los Angeles Times. http://lat.ms/Wzm1l2

Paul Blumenthal of Huffington Post has more details on the anti-Mitch McConnell super PAC. http://huff.to/T5ZfEa

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